To use the Sorting Algorithm of Mortality, simply add the Scream Score for each applicable row, then divide by the number of applicable rows (at this point, 13 or fewer). Remember: this is a relative score, so you need at least 3 characters from the same movie or series to establish a baseline. The original article is here. For characters who have already snuffed it, see Sorting Algorithm of Deadness.
Example Cast:
Series or Film NameDescription of who's who and why they're likely to snuff it.
- Character A:
- Row 1: Value 5-1
- Row 2: Value 5-1
- Row 3: Value 5-1
- Total divided by rows: Final score and witty pun
- Character B:
- Row 1: Value 5-1
- Row 2: Value 5-1
- Row 3: Value 5-1
- Total divided by rows: Final score and witty pun
- Character C:
- Row 1: Value 5-1
- Row 2: Value 5-1
- Row 3: Value 5-1
- Total divided by rows: Final score and witty pun
- Nathan Hale
- Age: Single Adult - 3
- Sexual Orientation: Straight - 3
- Love Interests: None - 1
- Role: The Heart - 3
- Race: White - 1
- Aesthetics: Handsome - 1
- Personality: Cheerful - 1
- Flaws: Smartass - 3
- Virtues: Smart, Genre Savvy - 2
- Species: Human - 3
- Occupation: Military - 4
- Total Score: 26/11 = 2.36. Even though he seems relatively safe, he's still up for the Foregone Conclusion death, considering this is a historical webcomic.
- Alan Warren
- Age: Adult - 3
- Sexual Orientation: Straight - 3
- Love Interest: Damsel In Distress - 1
- Role: Hero - 1
- Race: White -1
- Aesthetics: Handsome - 1
- Personality: The Captain - 2
- Flaws: Smartass - 3
- Virtues: Action Guy - 2
- Species: Human - 3
- Occupation: Military - 4
- Total Score: 21/11 = 1.9. Seems likes this guy ain't going anywhere, his mysterious coughing be damned.
Hetalia: Axis Powers
Let's see what would happen if the Allies were in a horror movie!
America
- Age, nineteen, so I think that's a mix between single adult and protagonist teen: 2.5
- Sexual Orientation: None full out confirmed in canon, only Ship Tease, so Celibate Hero: 1
- Love Interests: N/A
- Role: Wants to be The Hero, so I'll let him: 1
- Race: White: 1
- "Aesthetics": Not exactly the cutie, but rather good-looking, so I'll give him a one.
- Personality: A mix between Jerk with a Heart of Gold, The Ditz and Friend to All Living Things, I think that makes him a 2,5
- Flaws: Crippling phobia of ghosts: 2
- Virtues: The Pollyanna: 1
- Species: Human: 3
- Occupation: Hmmm... Probably a mix Between Superhero and Innocent Bystander, 2
- Final Score: 1,7 - Wow, America, why are you so afraid of horror films? You'd almost certainly survive one!
England
- Age, twenty-three, single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: None full out confirmed in canon, only Ship Tease, so Celibate Hero: 1
- Love Interests: N/A
- Role: The Lancer: 3
- Race: White: 1
- "Aesthetics": A bit over average: 2
- Personality: Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 3
- Flaws: The closest is smartass, though I doubt he'd be so stupid he'd taunt people. Could hold the Idiot Ball though: 4
- Virtues: Genre Savvy: 3
- Species: Human: 3
- Occupation: Hero's friend and mentor: 4,5
- Final Score: 2,75 - Dammit, don't kill him off! He's to Tsundere to die!
France
- Age: Twenty-six, single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: Bisexual: 5
- Love Interests: N/A
- Role: Closest is probably Plucky Comic Relief: 4
- Race: White: 1
- "Aesthetics": Rather handsome: 1,5
- Personality: Closest is Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 3
- Flaws: Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: 5
- Virtues: Closest is The Smart Guy: 3
- Species: Human: 3
- Occupation: Closest is Hero's friend: 4
- Final Score: 3,25 - Better keep away from that haunted house, France...
China
- Age, While in his twenties in physical age, he's Really 700 Years Old, so Older and Wiser: 5
- Sexual Orientation: None full out confirmed in canon, only Ship Tease, so Celibate Hero: 1
- Love Interests: N/A
- Role: Plucky Comic Relief: 4
- Race: Asian: 3
- "Aesthetics": Bishounen: 1
- Personality: Mix off The Ditz and Friend to All Living Things: 2,5
- Flaws: Butt-Monkey: 4
- Virtues: The Pollyanna: 1
- Species: Human: 3
- Occupation: Closest I can find is hero's friend: 4
- Final Score: 2.85 - Hm, closer than I thought.
Russia
- Age Age unknown, single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: While he's shown interest in China and Lithuania, I'd say he's to much of a Psychopathic Manchild to call it love. Celibate Hero: 1
- Love Interests: N/A
- Role: The Lancer: Closest is a mix between loner and Plucky Comic Relief: 4
- Race: Don't know if Russian counts as Asian or white, so I'll take the thing between: 2
- "Aesthetics": The least handsome of the cast, so: 3
- Personality: Well, he's crazy, so Crazy Survivalist: 5
- Flaws: Due to his childishness, mentally handicapped: 1
- Virtues: Once again, due to childishness, curious: 5
- Species: Human: 3
- Occupation: Once again, closest is hero's friend: 4
- Final Score: 2,8 - My, they all have pretty good odds
Might as well do the Axis members (Axes?) too:
Italy
- Age: 20, so a single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: Tough one. He did tell Germany that his first love was a boy, so considering he flirts with girls he would be bi. But he also says that he is a virgin, which would make him a Celibate Hero. Let's give him a 3 as a compromise.
- Role: I guess he's technically The Hero: 1
- Race: White: 1
- Personality: The Ditz: 4
- Flaws: A coward, while of a more loveable kind: 5
- Virtues: Closest one is The Pollyanna: 1
- Species: Human is probably the closest: 3
- Final Score: 21/8=2.625. Quite high for a title character.
Germany
- Age:20, a single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: Again, debatable, but he's a lot more reserved than Italy, so probably reluctant: 2
- Role: The Lancer, if we're going if Italy as The Hero: 3
- Race: White: 1
- Personality: I suppose the closest is The Captain: 2
- Flaws: I can't think of any that fits: N/A
- Virtues: Pragmatic: 5
- Species: Again, we're going with Human: 3
- Occupation: Hero's friend: 4
- Final score: 23/8=2.875. He'd better watch out for the Worf Effect, I guess.
Japan
- Age: He profile says "secret", but let's just go with single adult: 3
- Sexual Orientation: Definitely a Celibate Hero: 1
- Role: The closest fit is The Lancer: 3
- Race: Same as the creator: 1
- Personality: Probably a nerd: 3
- Flaws: Again, none of them fits: N/A
- Virtues: The Smart Guy or The Quiet One: 3.5
- Species: We've gone though this already: 3
- Occupation: Hero's friend: 4
- Final score: 21.5/8=2.6875. Hetalia characters in general seems like they should be glad they are Anthropomorphic Personifications of nations.
- Character A: Piro
- Row 1: Age: Single adult, so 3.
- Row 2: Sexual orientation: Seems to have no trouble attracting girls and isn't explicitly celibate, but avoids relationships. 2.
- Row 3: Love interest: Romance show. 3.
- Row 4: Role: Hero. 1.
- Row 5: Race: Caucasion. 1.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: "Average". 3.
- Row 7: Personality: He's oblivious to most important things, making him The Ditz. 4.
- Row 8: Flaws: Wears glasses (literally). 3.
- Row 9: Virtue: Quiet Guy. 4.
- Row 10: Species: Human. 3.
- Row 11: Occupation: Innocent bystander. 3.
- Total divided by rows: 30/11 = 2.72. The fact that he is very explicitly and undeniably an author avatar pretty much insures that he will at least live to the end of the series regardless of relative scores.
- Character B: Largo
- Row 1: Age: Single adult. 3.
- Row 2: Sexual orientation: Celibate. 1.
- Row 3: Love interest: Romance show. 3.
- Row 4: Role: Plucky comic relief. 4.
- Row 5: Race: Caucasion. 1.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: "Average". 3.
- Row 7: Personality: Would probably qualify as The Fool due to his inability to handle anything outside the realm of computers or games, yet his incredible luck keeping him afloat. 4.
- Row 8: Flaws: Mentally handicapped (maybe not literally, but yeah). 1.
- Row 9: Virtue: Pollyanna. 1.
- Row 10: Species: Human. 3.
- Row 11: Occupation: Could probably count as something between Innocent Bystander and Super Hero, so 2.
- Total divided by rows: 26/11 = 2.36. He's not going to die any time soon.
- Character C: Ping
- Row 1: Age: Appears to be a young adult, but has the mind of a child. 2.
- Row 2: Sexual orientation: Celibate. 1.
- Row 3: Love interest: N/A
- Row 4: Role: Plucky comic relief. 4.
- Row 5: Race: Appears Asian. 3.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: The Cutie. 1.
- Row 7: Personality: The Ditz. 4.
- Row 8: Flaws: Both Genre Blind and Too Dumb To Live. 5.
- Row 9: Virtue: Pollyanna. 1.
- Row 10: Species: Robot. 5.
- Row 11: Occupation: Innocent bystander. 3.
- Total divided by rows: 29/10 = 2.9. Despite this, the fact that she is a C-list character and could have her death be easily reverted makes her probably close to the top for death.
- Character A: Roy Greenhilt
- Row 1: Age: Single Adult. 3.
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Straight. 3.
- Row 3: Love Interests: No idea where Celia fits in, so I'll skip this one.
- Row 4: Role: Hero. 1.
- Row 5: Race: Black. 5.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: Average, I guess. Hard to tell. 3.
- Row 7: Personality: Hard one, but I think 2 is about right.
- Row 8: Flaws: No idea.
- Row 9: Virtues: Genre Savvy, like everybody else. 3.
- Row 10: Species: Human. 3.
- Row 11: Occupation: Adventurer. 2.
- Total divided by rows: 2.78. Not that it matters, since he's already dead (he got better, though).
- Character B: Xykon
- Row 1: Age: Single Adult. 3.
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Straight. 3.
- Row 3: Love Interests: None, probably.
- Row 4: Role: Villain. 5.
- Row 5: Race: Caucasian, before undeath. 1.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: He's undead, that's pretty ugly. 5.
- Row 7: Personality: Evil incarnate. That would probably be 5.
- Row 8: Flaws: None that I can think of.
- Row 9: Virtues: Genre Savvy, like everybody else. 3.
- Row 10: Species: Undead. 5.
- Row 11: Occupation: Evil, evil, evil. 5.
- Total divided by rows: 3.89. Of course he'll eventually get finally destroyed, but since he's the BBEG, it'll have to wait a bit longer.
- Character C: O-chul
- Row 1: Age: Appears to be older than most of the main characters 4
- Row 2: Role: Colonel Makepeace seems to be the closest fit. 3.
- Row 3: Race: Appears Caucasian 1.
- Row 4: Aesthetics: Fashionably scarred. 2
- Row 5: Personality: The Captain again seems to fit the best. 2.
- Row 6: Virtues: Gentle Giant. He may be a badass, but he also forms an Odd Friendship with the MitD. 4
- Row 7: Species: Human 3.
- Row 8: Occupation: Paladin, and a damn good one at that. 4.
- Total divided by rows: 22/8 = 2.75. He may outlive some members of the Order itself.
Now for a test run:
- Character D: Miko Miyazaki
- Row 1: Age: Single Adult. 3
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Celibate and oblivious to Roy's (initial) advances. 1
- Row 3: Role: The Scrappy. 1
- Row 4: Race: Asian. 3
- Row 5: Aesthetics: Attractive enough for Roy to be attracted when they first meet, but not be commented on by the other characters afterwards. 2
- Row 6: Personality: Lawful Stupid. 5
- Row 7: Virtues: Holier Than Thou. 5
- Row 8: Flaws: Again, Lawful Stupid. 4
- Row 9: Species: Human. 3
- Row 10: Occupation: Paladin, and a very high-ranking one at that. 4
- Total divided by rows: 31/10 = 3.1. Her Karmic Death was all but inevitable.
- Character E: Vaarsuvius
- Row 1: Age: Older and wiser. 3.
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Who knows?
- Row 3: Love Interests:
- Row 4: Role: The Smart Guy
- Row 5: Race: Elf
- Row 6: Aesthetics: It's hard to tell.
- Row 7: Personality: Nerd. 3
- Row 8: Flaws: Smartass 4
- Row 9: Virtues: Smart. 3.
- Row 10: Species: Elf (Pretty Alien) 2.
- Row 11: Occupation: Scientist With Questionable Ethics. 3.
- Total divided by rows: 18/6 = 3
- Character F: Belkar Bitterleaf
- Row 1: Age: Single Adult. 3.
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Word of God puts him as lusting over Vaarsuvius... I'll skip this one.
- Row 3: Love Interests: Skipped.
- Row 4: Role: Kind of a Plucky Comic Relief. 4.
- Row 5: Race: Skipped.
- Row 6: Aesthetics: I'll say 3.
- Row 7: Personality: Evil, yet funny. 5.
- Row 8: Flaws: Skipped.
- Row 9: Virtues: Skipped.
- Row 10: Species: Halfling. 3.
- Row 11: Occupation: Token Evil Teammate, kind of The Millstone as of late. 4.
- Total divided by rows: 22/6 = 3.66...
- Character A- Betty
- Row 1: Age: Parent. 4
- Row 2: Sexual Orientation: Probably straight, since she was never interested in any women, and obviously had sex with a man to produce Thaddeus. 3
- Row 3: Love Interests: N/A
- Row 4: Role: Hard to tell. Closest that fits is Plucky Comic Relief, yet can you have comic relief in a webcomic that's entirely a comedy? 3.5
- Row 5: Race: Caucasian. She probably fits "same as the creator" as well, since Sutton is Canadian, and he confirms
that Thaddeus is as well, and Betty is Thaddeus's mother. 1 - Row 6: Gender: Woman, but fits none of the available categories, so N/A.
- Row 7: Aesthetics: Average. 3
- Row 8: Personality: Jerk with a Heart of Gold. 3
- Row 9: Flaws: Wears glasses. 3
- Row 10: 'Virtues: N/A
- Row 11: Species: Human. 3
- Row 12: Occupation: N/A
- Row 13: Prognosis: N/A
- Row 14: Health: N/A
- Total: 23.5/8 = Rounds to 3. Not too bad.
- Character B- Gordon Noble'
- Row 1: Age: Single adult. 3
- Row 2: Sexual orientation: Never seen with anyone, so N/A.
- Row 3: Love Interests: Ditto.
- Row 4: Role: Hard to define, so N/A.
- Row 5: Race: Black. 5
- Row 6: Gender: Male. 3
- Row 7: Aesthetics: Average. 3
- Row 8: Personality: He's the boss of scientists so maybe a nerd. 3
- Row 9: Flaws: N/A
- Row 10: 'Virtues: Smart. 3
- Row 11: Species: Human. 3
- Row 12: Occupation: N/A
- Row 13: Prognosis: N/A
- Row 14: Health: N/A
- Total: 20/6 = 3.3. Again, not too bad.
- Character A- Denmark
- Row 1: Age: Mid 20s, but really 1700 years so- 3
- Row 2: Sexuality: OMNISEXUAL- 5
- Row 3: Role: Goes from Lancer to Hero- 1
- Row 4: Aesthetic: Slightly above average- 2
- Row 5: Personality: Pervert with a heart of gold- 4
- Row 6: Virtues: Uhhh... Nice Guy?- 3
- Row 7: Flaws: Bisexual- 5
- Final Score: 3.3, I'm honestly quite surprised. Tho, I still think he'd be the first to do die if another cast member gets a "3" score.
- Danny
- Age: Parent 4.
- Sexual Orientation: Was married, still dates, so straight 3
- Role: Not really a 'hero', but the protaganist, so 1
- Race: Caucasian, 1.
- Aesthetics: Average. 3.
- Personality: Jerk with a heart of gold, 3.
- Flaws: Jerkass, 4
- "Virtues" Smarter AND Genre Savvy, 3.
- Species: Despite being Blood Bond, still pretty human, 3.
- Total: 25/9=2.77777777777777777777... Lets hope he survives...
